alleged "bums" victor oladipo, young sabas, enes kanter, even mcbuckets. all playing pretty damn well so far.

and all on teams with better records than the oklahoma city thunder.

could it just be, maybe, that russ is a liiiiiiittle difficult to play with, and constantly defer to? and that KD was right to leave and that harden was the real 2017 mvp?

these are just questions. i'm just throwing them out there.

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it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes

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Steph: I was just fooling about

Kyrie: I wasn't.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R8OWNspU_yE

http://tinyurl.com/y8pbooya

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it is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts. - sherlock holmes

Oladipo: a #2 pick who turned 25 this year.
Kanter: a #3 pick who turned 25 this year.
McDermott: a lottery pick who turned 25 this year.
Sabonis: a lottery pick who turned 21 this year.

I don't doubt that Russ is likely a hard player to develop alongside... but maybe also people just need to stop recklessly agendaizing young high-level prospects and dismissing them after one, two, or perhaps even three years of not immediately performing to whatever people's positional expectations are? Not every young guard is Kyrie, not every young big is Cousins. A fuck ton of them take time.

I've been hearing every year since Oladipo reached the league that me saying he was a potential NBA All-Star was foolish cysage. I couldn't really respond with anything other than, "Yeah, well, he did have that potential and still does. He's crazy young." Now he very well may be an all-star this year. Sabonis and McDermott just entered the league, what, two years ago? I don't think either is an all-star prospect personally (Sabonis is higher ceiling than McDermott imo), but man, the dismissal of these dudes early as "bums" was nuts. No reason a guy like McDermott can't make jumpers off an NBA bench. He just has to get used to the competition level.

Not that you did this, of course. It's why you included the quotes. Just worth pointing out once again, since every time I search on Twitter for any rookie NBA player, like 75% of the tweets are just about what a shitty pick Player X is. First Take has fucked even basic sports conversations beyond repair.

My movies: http://russellhainline.com
My movie reviews: https://letterboxd.com/RussellHFilm/
My beer TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thebeertravelguide

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<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

If a player is in the NBA/NCAA Top 25 and not part of somebody's agenda, they might as well not exist.

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Photo zine(some images NSFW): http://bit.ly/USaSPhoto

"This (and every, actually) conversation needs more Chesterton and less Mike Francesa." - Walleye

they threw him in the fire, cause they needed a player @ the four and he responded well, before his body hit the rookie wall. Who called him a bum?

Kanter looks the same to me, he does what he does - score. Maybe he gets more touches in NY, I dunno.

The only one who clearly thrived without Russ is Dipo.

I never thought any of the four were bums.
Sabonis was a good, young player last year. Obviously has the DNA...he could shoot it some, too. Kid's body just wore out. No crime there. He was simply part of the deal. If you can get PG, you get him.

Vic is obviously a hooper. Watching as many games as I did last year, he did some maddening, hard to explain shit at times...but, he's a baller and pretty much a good dude (the extended cut of his interview with Desus and Mero is pretty damn good) Again...if you can get PG AND offload a huge contract, you do it.

Dougie...I was excited when this trade happened. I thought we'd finally gotten a shooter on the roof. Didn't work out that way. Cool. So, he was just part of a deal. We flipped Payne, Morrow and Joffrey for Taj and Dougie...then ended up including Dougie in the deal to get Melo. Ok(c)Jigga

Kanter was the hardest for me. It's well documented how I feel about dude. Wouldn't even be hard to pull up if somebody wanted to try some "gotcha" shit. I've probably stated it 6, 7 times in various posts. Loyal teammate, great hands, hustles, fantastic scorer with a nose for the ball...can't defend. There were times during the Houston series where he just could not be on the floor. Annnnnnnnd...if you can get Melo PLUS get rid of Enes' contract, you do it.

Not really sweating our record when we haven't even opened the cranberry sauce yet. I will say, it is frustrating watching us build huge leads and loose them or some of the shot selection, at times. Still, I'm confident that we will be around when the beef cooks *RIP Prodigy* next spring.

...I'm from the era when A.I. was the answer, now they think ai is the answer - Marlon Craft

on the bron thing, he was at or close enough to the top in a lot of metrics I find helpful, including 1st in RPM. my default is to give it to the best player unless the numbers overwhelmingly suggest someone else.

As for Russ, he's the evolution of iverson, with all the good and bad that suggests.

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bshelly

"You (Fisher) could get fired, Les Snead could get fired, Kevin Demoff could get fired, but I will always be Eric Dickerson.” (c) The God

It's hurting his teammates more than anything. He's basically that dude you know in college who's very brilliant, studies last minute, smokes all the time, and gets an A on every test while his buddies doing the same thing are barely getting by.

Couldn't have been THAT laissez faire.

----
bshelly

"You (Fisher) could get fired, Les Snead could get fired, Kevin Demoff could get fired, but I will always be Eric Dickerson.” (c) The God

We've seen it countless number of times now.

As for all the players you mentioned....it's like we have completely forgotten about player development cycles and additionally just how much context and environment play a part in that cycle.

---------------------------------
<--The drought is over

"have fun reveling in your pettiness tho" (C) Dula summing up 98% of OKS

"I didnt finish a damn thing...matter of fact I jerked off after she left."
-Kobe speaking to investigators

L D E A

For Vic and Kanter, aside from their youth , as has been mentioned, these two are on their third stop.

Some guys take time and seasoning to cook, even if some "fans" can't wait to roast them by game two of their entire career.

It's as much about that as it is playing with a ball dominant player like Russ.

Time. Seasoning. Experience. Sometimes that's the path.

that had nothing to do with Russ lol

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

<---https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DL9AVTQ

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
<---- 5....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dlgiritpmfo

=======================================

<---https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DL9AVTQ

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

That being said, I'd rather have Kanter right today than melo.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

-The Knicks’ coaching search still includes a lone frontrunner, Kurt Rambis, whose qualifications for the position include a strong relationship with Jackson and a willingness to take the job.

________________________________________
"Take the surprise out your voice Shaq."-The REAL CP3
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2H5K-BUMS0

but Kanter ... was on the Knicks, right?

>but Kanter ... was on the Knicks, right?

The Knicks as a whole were a toxic wasteland, but Enes Kanter was easily one of the bright spots for them this season and he did in fact play better individually for the Knicks than he did while he was on OKC. If and when he leaves, it's going to hurt Porzingis because Kanter did a lot of the dirty work in terms of getting rebounds that Porzingis seemed to somewhat struggle with, at least from what I saw from Porzingis this season.

"Sean sparks like John Starks, nah, Sean ball like John Wall" - Rest In Power Forever Sean Price.